A claim by the Ministry of Health that its officials could not negotiate a government-to-government deal with Russia to procure Sputnik V vaccines has been contested.
Government is being accused of buying the vaccines at an exorbitant price of $19 per dose when the market price is $10.
An outspoken US-based private legal practitioner, Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare (aka Prof Azar), has said it is baffling that the government of Ghana has been unable to procure the doses from the manufacturing country even trials were done in Ghana.
"We were able to negotiate directly with Russia to be used as trial grounds of the single-dose Sputnik but could not negotiate to buy their much-publicized $10 vaccine directly from them.Â
"Rather, we ended up buying the Russia Sputnik from the UAE sheiks. If the UAE sheiks can get it from Russia, why can’t we?" he said in a Facebook post on Thursday, June 10, 2021.
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The Ministry of Health has said in a statement that it had to go through middlemen to procure the single-dose vaccines because diplomatic efforts to obtain the vaccines from Russia proved futile.
The Ministry of Health also explained in the statement issued on Thursday, June 10, 2021, that the contested $19 price tag on the vaccines is the result of government’s direct negotiation with the middleman.
“It should be noted that the $10 price per dose, which is being proposed as the correct price, is the ex-factory price, which is only obtained from Government to Government arrangements. The Government of Ghana was unable to obtain direct supplies from the Russian Government as stated earlier, hence the resort to the market.
“The initial price quoted as $25, but this was negotiated downwards to $19. This is the result of the cost build-up to the ex-factory price of $10 per dose, taking into account land transportation, shipment, insurance, handling and special storage charges, as explained by the seller. These are the factors which led us to agree the final price of $19 per dose,†the statement explained further.
Wading into what many are convinced is a rip-off, Prof Asare said for being unable to secure the vaccines directly with Russia, "either we are not effective negotiators or we are Living Legends."
Meanwhile, Founding President of think tank, IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, wants Ghana to take advantage of a plan by the US to give free vaccines to poor countries.
"Forget middlemen & overpriced Sputnik V vaccines. Biden is gifting 500m vaccines. Who is Ghana's Ambassador to the US? Make that call now and let us save [dollars]," Franklin Cudjoe said.